8.27.2006

Been browsing the John Mark Karr video archives (along with doing "research" at The Court TV Crime Library), and I wanted to post a few of my favorite clips... But before I do that, some more background on JMK:

In 1984, when he was 19 years old, Karr married a 13-year-old girl named Quientana Shotts, according to Shott's mother, Melissa Shotts. Karr evidently told Quientana to lie about her age, and took her out of Alabama, where they both lived, to marry her. Karr and Shotts lived together as a couple in Hamilton after their wedding, and Karr "was abusing her every way there was," according to Melissa Shotts. Court records show that, in 1985, a 14-year-old girl sought an annulment of what the records call a "ceremonial marriage," saying she had feared for her life when she agreed to marry Karr in 1984. Karr admitted to the court that she was a minor, but disputed she had been 13. The marriage was annulled in 1985. Shotts later remarried and is now named Quientana Ray.

Also, Karr was a web-pioneer, forerunner of the online male praying mantises of today exposed by that scandalously righteous entrapment scheme set up by Dateline NBC:

The name John Karr was associated with a website called PowerWurks, apparently created sometime in 1996. The site, which was referred to in multiple Usenet postings, was used "to trawl for young girls on the Internet," according to Time magazine. Computer experts claim that a man matching Karr's description was using the Internet in 1996 in an effort to meet children for sex. A Usenet post made by a John Karr on March 9, 1996 to the alt.support.loneliness newsgroup describes the purpose of powerwurks.com:

PowerWurks is a support organization for kids, teens and college students but all ages are welcome. We provide a safe and private environment where you can freely and comfortably express your thoughts and feelings on any subject. No subject is banned from discussion. All conversations are strictly confidential and that's a promise!!

Now there's a promise you can trust, because JMK definitely doesn't like to talk. Witness:

The best part is definitely my first taste of a Thai Media Circus. It's much different than I had imagined... I love the sinister close up after the first "No Comment"!!! Amazing raw footage.

Now this is what I call meaningful research:

Great work guys, glad Fox News liked it. This next one is boring until the Thai Investigator starts injecting a little hearsay evidence into the proceedings. This won't prejudice any jurors in America:Lastly, this guy is too much for words. I had to include his montage tribute to JonBenet and the Ramseys. Watch at least until the first "talking head" moment:

8.26.2006

Well, it's that time of year again. The Lebanon conflict is "over," people have forgotten about Iraq (not that they've ever necessarily noticed it in anything but an extremely superficial way anyhow, accepting, of course, Cindy Sheehan), and the initial burst of fear stirred by the "plane bomb plot" has quickly faded. Congress is getting ready for the big campaign season, nothing wiil get done (it never does)...

So what does the President do to spice things up? Introduce a new set of constitution violations for us to enjoy? Perhaps perform a set of drunken shenanigan with a visiting Boris Yeltsin that get recorded by a disgruntled Ranch-hand and posted on YouTube?Nothing so fun, alas... Instead, it's time to fix up that critical resource, Our National Parks. At least this well actually benefit Americans for a change. But, and nothing against parks (which I love), aren't there more important things we could be working on, like, oh I don't know, health-insurance for the poor, the horrific war in Iraq and the silent toll it is taking on the nation, or maybe the now so suddenly high price of fuel, with winter on the horizon?

I hope at least Bush Park can get some of the funding, though I don't think it is a National Park... Yet!

8.24.2006

BOMBAY, India - The owner of a restaurant named after Adolf Hitler said Thursday he will change its name because it angered so many people... Puneet Sablok said he would remove Hitler's name and the Nazi swastika from billboards and the menu. He had said the restaurant's name — "Hitler's Cross" — and symbols were only meant to attract attention."I never wanted to hurt people's feelings," said Sablok.

Some Indians regard Hitler as just another historical figure and have little knowledge about the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were systematically killed during World War II.

The swastika symbol, which was appropriated by the Nazis, was originally an ancient Hindu symbol and it is displayed all over India to bring luck.

I wonder if he'll go the Prince route and call his place "The Restaurant Formerly Known as Hitler's Cross." His "Death/Media" publicity stunt has paid off... Just like Hitler-rhetoric in congress, I predict that a new trend, let's call it "Hitlertising," will soon sweep the world of traditional advertising... Or has it already?

8.20.2006

8.19.2006

I'm sorry, but the Haditha "it was a routine action" defense might not work this time... I mean, if you ask my ignorant opinion, of course it was routine... Just not in the sense that the media takes it! It was routine, as in, innocent people are slaughtered all the time, and justifiably so. Right Private Green?

Just to get it out of the way, I guarantee this guy is %100 G-U-I-L-T-Y, in the words of Nancy Grace.Meanwhile, here are some of the pertinent details from the above linked story:

The Rocky Mountain News reported that Boulder prosecutors were in contact with a former classmate of Karr's because a yearbook signed by him more than 20 years ago may reveal why the ransom note left for the Ramseys was signed "S.B.T.C."

In the 1982 yearbook, Karr ended his missive with the line, "Though, deep in the future, maybe I shall be the conqueror and live in multiple peace," raising the question of whether S.B.T.C means "shall be the conqueror."

If this is the "other evidence" we've been hearing about, call me crazy, but I think the prosecution's got him... No, really! Follow my logic for a second; isn't it logical that a derranged child-porn-loving teacher who had for years studied both the JonBenet and Polly Klaas cases, and even relocated his family to Petaluma, California, home of one Polly Klaas, would never pretend to have committed one of these infamous, media-saturated cases?

Another perspective:

Patsy Ramsey was willing to meet with John Mark Karr but she died from ovarian cancer in June before investigators set up a meeting, family attorney Lin Wood said Friday. And Ramsey never saw the words Karr believed she was reading because his messages were secretly being intercepted by authorities.

"He thought that he was corresponding with Patsy, but he wasn't," Wood told The Associated Press. Police in Roswell, Ga., where Ramsey spent the last days of her life, declined to say if they conducted the correspondence ruse.

Great! So there are no signs of fantasy on either side! I mean, the Ramseys weren't "entrapping" this "guilty murderer" with a simple ruse. Of course not... They were following their hearts, as they, at least in Patsy's case, inched towards freedom, err, I mean, death...

And besides, it's not like Karr is crazy:

"...JonBenet, my love, my life. I love you and shall forever love you," according to an e-mail Karr sent on Dec. 23, 2005, just before the anniversary of her death. "I pray that you can hear my voice calling out to you from my darkness — this darkness that now separates us."

The e-mail asked Tracey to visit Ramsey's former home in Boulder and read aloud the ode he called "JonBenet, My Love."

See! Completely rational behavior. This guy definitely did it!

Now, for the coup de'grace:

In another e-mail, the newspaper reported, Karr said he sympathized with Michael Jackson, who has been accused of molesting young boys.

8.16.2006

Now that I live in New York, I'm constantly being accosted by celebrities. For instance, just the other day I was walking up from the 110th street subway stop (my new hood), when who should I see but 68th District City Council Leader John Ruiz! Ruiz, a retired member of the FDNY known earlier in his career as "The Rappin' Fireman," was standing on the corner of Lexington avenue, dressed in a suit, talking on a cell phone. It was amazing!

Even cooler, the other night I was actually sitting at the same table (albeit about twenty five feet away) as x-list celebrity Michelle Shaprow. Fans of Euro dance music know her for her chart topping techno (so I'm told). New York is such a small place. Check out this site for more info on this amazing talent.

As you can guess from these two amazing run-ins, it was not surprising that this afternoon, while desperately looking for a Judaica bookstore to help me complete my Gershom Sholem collection, I bumped into Rita Cosby. I greeted her with a smile and an attempted warm embrace, but she brushed me aside, her eyes glued to her Blackberry. I knew something big must be afoot.

And boy was I ever right! It turns out that Patsy Ramsey didn't kill her daughter after all! It seems a man has been arrested in Thailand in connection to the slaying. More as this story develops, and Rita Cosby, if you are reading this, don't ever brush me off again. Consider yourself warned!